Posted July 17, 2013in Joe's Neighborhood
In the basement of the old Catholic elementary school in Iowa City, we all lined up with our vendor trays attached by straps across the back of our necks. Ranging in ages from 10 to 13, we were loaded down with homecoming mums. After a quick lecture from Sister Timothy
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Posted July 10, 2013in Joe's Neighborhood
Come on. This is just weird. He is sitting way too close. His knee is almost touching yours. Can you tell him to back up? Is your breathing getting a little ragged? Does he notice that your eyes are moistening? The lean of his body into yours is as intimate
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Posted July 03, 2013in Joe's Neighborhood
Fear can raise a rebellion even in the smallest of hearts. It certainly was the force that propelled me at the age of 8 to barricade myself in the family station wagon on a hot summer day many years ago. The windows were rolled up, and my parents and seven
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Posted June 26, 2013in Joe's Neighborhood
What would the Founding Fathers do? There seems to be a wistful longing these days for when men were men and the likes of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin were the talk of the town. But don’t you wonder how all those revolutionary heroes navigated their home
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Posted June 19, 2013in Joe's Neighborhood
My uncle had one arm. In my 1960’s world view, this single difference — not intellect, not physical strength, not beauty — propelled my uncle into a mystical category. He moved within the realm of the giants of those days, Tarzan, Robin Hood and Davy Crockett. He was a man
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Posted June 12, 2013in Joe's Neighborhood
“How to” books are everywhere. How to lose weight. How to become stronger. How to fix your dry wall. You name it, there’s a “how to” book or pamphlet or Internet site out there. “How to” information seems almost spiritual in its scope, doesn’t it? If you just find the
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Posted June 05, 2013in Joe's Neighborhood
Do you ever wonder what rules you live by? Sure you do. Your rules can be as simple as “thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife” or as complex as trying to determine if donuts are part of the Mediterranean Diet. But we all have rules. These rules are frequently
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Posted May 29, 2013in Joe's Neighborhood
Drama is in our blood. We love the show. Unfortunately, when we look in the mirror at our own lives, we don’t see that we are playing the lead. So we buy People magazine or watch the Kardashians or eavesdrop on Honey Boo Boo, because we are fairly certain that
Read More →Sue Bullard-Fisher died the other day. Most of you don’t know her. She was a probation officer in Polk County for 40 years, but, really, she should have been a probation officer in the first half of the last century. She was from a different time with a different ethic.
Read More →Hubris is an interesting quality. In my day, they would have called you “stuck-up.” A little too sure of yourself. Self-confidence on steroids, perhaps. Whatever you call it, “arrogance” is a label that doesn’t sit well with our Midwestern ethic. To say that your cubicle neighbor might be a bit
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